Since the new 285 is out the 280 will cease to be in existense
Hardocp Quote:
AMD Answers our Questions
During the evaluation of this video card we had many pointed questions for AMD. Thanks to the response of AMD's Senior Product Manager for Desktop Graphics at AMD and product manager for the AMD Radeon R9 285 GPU, Evan Groenke, we have those questions and answers to share with you today that will shed some light on the thought process behind the AMD Radeon R9 285. We will post our questions in white, and Evan Groenke's answer's in yellow.
Q. - So once inventory on R9 280s is depleted in e-tail and retail channels, will you be re-supplying new R9 280 GPUs, or are you going to let R9 280 die out? I.e. Discontinued.
A. - R9 280 is going away – you’ll find some pretty amazing deals online, so get it while you can!
Q. - If you knew Tonga was planned all along, then can you explain why you developed R9 280 (Tahiti) in the first place?
A. - Simply timing. We made the R9 280 available for gamers who wanted a great 1080p and 1440p gaming experience prior to September 2. And now they can get a product with even more features and tech (or find a crazy deal on a R9 280).
Q. - Since R9 280’s can be found for well under $249 right now, well below its MSRP of $279, how do you justify to gamers purchasing an R9 285 over an R9 280 when R9 280 is cheaper and potentially faster?
A. - Both are great cards, and we recommend gamers buy whichever they prefer. The R9 285 is built on the latest GCN architecture, is more power efficient, will have both 2GB and 4GB options, and offers technologies like bridgeless CF, TrueAudio, newest PowerTune, and FreeSync – you’re getting the latest and greatest. The R9 280 has 3GB and is available for some great prices while supplies last. Gamers can make a great choice with either.
Q. - Do you expect the 256-bit bus and 2GB of RAM on R9 285 to be a hindrance compared to the 3GB and 384-bit memory bus on R9 280 if you are targeting 1440p gaming? Wouldn’t a gamer want to chose the 3GB 384-bit bus card for the 1440p gaming you are targeting over the R9 285 with lesser RAM and memory bandwidth?
A. - You’ll verify this yourself I’m sure, but very very few cases show lose out to the 280 because of frame buffer. Though some of the improvements to our GCN chip on board the R9 285 we have been able to provide ~40% higher memory bandwidth efficiency on the R9 285 vs. R9 280. This is via lossless delta color compression which bridges the gap between the memory bandwidth available on the 384bit R9 280 and the 256bit R9 285 as you pointed out.
That last bit there explains the performance advantage we have been seeing in R9 285 over R9 280. Apparently R9 285 can experience better memory efficiency through the use of the new lossless delta color compression in this third iteration of GCN architecture technology. That explains that.
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